I'll kick off.

I suspect rising female crime is in part due to the normal social structures breaking down.

Now don't, for one minute, think that I feel that women who get pregnant outside of marriage should be snubbed socially and thought less of.

But the fact is that 'shame' was a social mechanism that prevented what was deemed 'untoward' behaviour. In the forties and fifties in the UK people didn't have sex outside of marriage very often. My own Mother told me she didn't do anything until being married at 21. 21 year old virgins are about as rare as a meaningful sentence from George Bush these days.

We now have many girls getting pregnant at 12 or even younger.

I am not advocating a return to the old ways - they were merciless and people who fell foul of social expectations felt much pain. I am simply making the case that the concept of 'shame' was one of the most powerful ways of affecting behaviour and females suffered the greatest levels of societally directed shame.

Now we have dropped the concept, in the UK we have had to invent a new term for lager-drinking girls - 'Ladettes'. I have been out drinking with groups of young women and their behaviour is scary and the amount they can knock back is astonishing.

We also have large problems with teenage girl gangs that (anecdotally) appear able to be far more brutal and devoid of conscience than their teenage boy gang counterparts.

I just think the restrictions are off and therefore the gloves are off. The old idea of 'the fairer sex' may well be consigned to history.

I also think that the world that women find themselves in is conducive to more stress. They often hold down challenging careers and more often than not do more than their partners in the home also. Mother's often devote much energy to work and then come home to have to expend even more energy looking after children. Women?s arrests for Offences Against the Family up by 6% whilst men?s down by 18.8% - this last stat (men?s) may be due to the trend of more men being absent from the family and familial commitments.

This increased demand upon women is likely IMO to contribute towards increased stress and more incidents of reportable crime ? stats show women arrested for Aggravated Assault up by 5.4% and Violent Crime up 4.4% also Drug Abuse Violations up by 41.7% against men?s increase of only 21%. Disorderly Conduct up by 4.2% against men?s drop of 13.8%. Also Vandalism up by 10.2% against men?s 14.9% drop.

Now women also are forced to compete with men on an uneven basis in the corporate world. They have to play even harder to progress. This would account for increased incidents of corporate related misdemeanours amongst women. Stats show women?s Forgery and Counterfeiting up by 3% - Embezzlement up by 32.6% - but Fraud DOWN by 23.8%.


I have not referred to any proper studies in my post, and this is not good form for a science board ? all of the above is my opinion and I would be happy for the facts to prove me wrong.

Your take on things?

Blacknad.